Tag Archives: NOAA

On March 11, 2011, residents throughout the Pacific and on the mainland’s west coast braced themselves for a tsunami, generated from a destructive 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the northeastern coast of Japan. While the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center took the lead in alerting ocean-side venues, it was a training facility nestled in Mānoa Valley, led by University of Hawai‘i researchers, that has been working behind the scenes daily to make sure response to such natural disasters is adept and widespread.

At the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) at the Mānoa Innovation Center, Executive Director and UH Mānoa Professor Karl Kim and his team routinely provide all-hazards training throughout the U.S. and its territories, with an emphasis on natural hazards in island and coastal communities. NDPTC is one of seven federally funded members of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, which collectively conduct research to develop and deliver disaster training for responders, decision-makers, policy analysts and urban planners—ensuring that they are prepared to respond in an event of a catastrophe.

Among the many ongoing training courses offered at the NDPTC is a FEMA-certified Tsunami Awareness course (AWR-217) that provides a basic understanding of tsunamis, hazard assessment, warning and dissemination, and community response strategies to effectively reduce tsunami risk. The goal of the 8-hour course is to enhance participants’ abilities to support their organizational preparedness and response efforts. No advanced knowledge and experience of tsunamis is required in order to sign up for the course.

Organizers note that effective response requires pre-event planning and preparation to ensure that the public knows what to do and where to evacuate before destructive waves arrive, and to know when it is all-clear and safe to return. “This is the first FEMA-certified course on tsunamis offered through NDPTC, which we developed because of the serious threat to Hawai‘i and other Pacific island communities,” said Kim. “We’re fortunate to have a strong collaborative relationship with NOAA, International Tsunami Information Center, Pacific Services Center and the Pacific Risk Management ‘ohana, as well as many other state and local agencies.” Kim added that the NDPTC has worked with partners in American Samoa to have course materials translated into Samoan.